Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP on Facebook: Strong coverage, consortium leadership

teamed up to mine The Facebook Papers — thousands of pages of internal company documents obtained by Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower and the source for earlier reporting by The Wall Street Journal.And as it so often does, AP took the lead on coordinating Monday’s embargoed reporting among 17 U.S. news outlets more more accustomed to competition than collaboration. AP also served as a liaison to a separate European consortium. The result was an overwhelming flood of insightful journalism from dozens of outlets on two continents, and potentially hundreds of stories in subsequent weeks as more documents become available.Some of the AP’s own stories stood out in that flood for their depth and storytelling. More than a dozen colleagues spent days poring over the documents in every region. These stories included a look at Facebook’s struggle to curb problematic content in other languages; how the company enabled the trafficking of Filipina housemaids; and examinations of Facebook’s failure to curtail misinformation on the 2020 Election and COVID-19 vaccines.https://apnews.com/hub/the-fac...https://aplink.news/uke

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP exposes offensive Pennsylvania police Facebook page

teamed up to reveal a private Facebook page where western Pennsylvania police officers shared distasteful and malicious posts. Lauer had heard rumors of the page and spent a year gently working sources in Pittsburgh until one finally confirmed the Pittsburgh Area Police Breakroom page existed. The source, over a few months, helped Lauer, a member of AP’s law enforcement team, acquire information found on the page, including transphobic, racist and bullying posts.

Lauer, along with news associate Beaty, took a hard look at the officers with the most egregious posts. She then went to Pittsburgh with New York video journalist Shaffrey and Pittsburgh photographer Srakocic to confront some of the officers, including a police chief listed as an administrator of the Facebook group. The result was an all-formats investigative story that appeared on numerous newspaper landing pages and generated high engagement on social media. Facebook reached out to AP not long after the story went live to say the offensive page was removed for violating company policy and to give an official comment. https://bit.ly/3wjaGhohttps://bit.ly/3ug6Dkr

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Should police be allowed to shame suspects on Facebook?

for a story on law enforcement’s use of a practice known as “Facebook shaming,” where suspects who haven’t yet been charged, tried or convicted are publicly ridiculed on social media platforms. http://abcn.ws/2u6DA6n

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Trump Facebook ads use models instead of actual supporters

for following up on a relatively obscure blog entry that mentioned the use of stock video footage by President Donald Trump’s campaign. Condon reported that the campaign was using stock video models to portray actual supporters in Facebook ads, and the models were not even in the United States but in France, Turkey and Brazil. Condon's story was one of AP’s most widely read of the past week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Immersive look at Facebook groups targeting Black Lives Matter

studied Facebook groups that opposed coronavirus shutdowns, finding that they shifted their target to the Black Lives Matter movement. Acting on a tip that such groups have a history of fundraising off hot-button issues, Seitz developed a database to track the groups, immersing herself in the online community to monitor misinformation and hate speech as the groups turned their attention against the Black Lives activism in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.The day after Amanda’s story was published, Facebook began suppressing search results for some of the groups mentioned in her story in an effort to limit their reach.https://bit.ly/30179p1

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Kenya deports South Sudan rebel official over Facebook post

for being first with the news that Kenya had deported a South Sudanese rebel spokesman back to South Sudan, where colleagues and human rights activists fear for his life. http://bit.ly/2fFtOlA

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP exposes network of scam Facebook ads using politicians’ images

for acting on an email to the AP Fact Check team from the Nevada governor’s office, alerting the team to scam ads on Facebook that used photos of politicians to offer unsuspecting homeowners lucrative tax incentives for installing solar panels. Seitz and Anderson uncovered a long-running, widespread scam – connected to a man previously sued by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising – that exposed the threat of harvesting personal data from unwitting users, as well as Facebook’s inability to police political scam ads ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. https://bit.ly/2uYB5CN

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Russia-backed Facebook page visualized through a cloud of hot-button phrases

for mining newly available information from a Russian-backed page deleted by Facebook to create a lively and informative data visualization showing divisive phrases used. http://bit.ly/2yteyRt

Best of the States

Only on AP: A report of college rape, a Facebook admission years later and a woman’s fight for justice

“So I raped you.” 

That message on Facebook, years after Shannon Keeler left college, sent her back to the night as a freshman that changed her life. It also was the basis for her continued fight for justice, as well as this exclusive, powerful examination of campus sexual assault. AP’s Maryclaire Dale, a legal affairs reporter in Philadelphia, and video journalist Allen Breed interviewed Keeler and others, including a student who befriended Keeler on the night of the 2013 attack. That woman, Katayoun Amir-Aslani, told her story, too: She was raped later, by a different man.

The deeply reported all-formats package sheds light on often unreported college rapes, and the systemic obstacles students like Keeler face in their search for justice when they do report. The story drew major attention on AP News, where it was the most-read story for days. Other media rushed to match it, and Keeler has since told her story on network TV.

For sensitive and insightful reporting on a system that one of the victims describes as “broken,” Dale and Breed receive this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

360 camera coverage immerses readers in battle for Mosul

for using a 360 camera to give readers an immersive experience of the battle for Mosul.

https://www.facebook.com/APNews/videos/10154058631...

Best of the States

Fenway incident prompts a deeper look at racial issues in Boston sports

When Baltimore Orioles' outfielder Adam Jones was the target of racial slurs at Fenway Park, the story resonated beyond sports, and required reporting that provided deeper context and meaning.

Philadelphia reporter Errin Whack has written previously about the intersection of sports, culture and race as a member of AP's Race & Ethnicity reporting team. She was tasked with explaining why Boston is perceived, particularly among blacks, as a racist sports town – a perception that also is challenged by many others as unfair and outdated. She had to figure out a way to plainly and objectively lay out for readers where this perception came from, and the lasting effect it has on both the city and its sports teams.

And she had to get this done on a tight deadline. For her timely, layered look at this racially-charged issue, Whack receives this week's Best of States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

LA Olympics campaign gets lots of likes – from Pakistan

for finding that an unusual spike in worldwide Facebook “likes” for the Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Olympics came from places like Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. https://yhoo.it/2otCxe4

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

The Crutsinger Chronicles: Politics and the Federal Reserve

for their video that blended Crutsinger’s recollections and perspective from covering four leaders of the Federal Reserve with AP's archival footage and photos. http://bit.ly/2ddoumX

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Multiformat teamwork breaks news on Louisiana shooting deaths

for their work that allowed AP to break news and dominate coverage with its rapid, all-format coverage of the shooting deaths of five people in Louisiana – including the first interview with a family member of the dead, Facebook postings from the shooter, and an all-formats interview with two people who lived with two of those killed. https://bit.ly/2BamasD

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Engaging AP package: Wildfires threaten snowpack, water supply

reported for all formats and collaborated with colleagues on a richly produced enterprise package that explores an important environmental concern linked to climate change: the effect of wildfires on water supply, particularly in the U.S. West where the fires are becoming more frequent and destructive.Denver-based videojournalist Peterson focused on a female climate scientist, a relative rarity in the field, and how her work might help local water managers guide decisions amid increasing water shortages which will only get worse in years to come.With strong visuals and an engaging presentation, the package resonated with customers and readers, was used by dozens and dozens of websites and papers, and racked up some 2 million pageviews on AP’s Facebook page alone.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Bikers' surprise: Helping a broken down Bruce Springsteen

for being first to report that a group of veterans riding home from a Veterans Day event stumbled upon Bruce Springsteen and his broken down motorcycle. The story started as a Facebook post by a local American Legion, but Cornfield talked to two of the riders to confirm the story and got copyright access to a UGC photo that helped it go viral.

http://apne.ws/2eDTH5B

Best of the Week — First Winner

​A father bids farewell to twin toddlers after Syria attack

What do reporters do when more than 300 war-ravaged miles separate them from an immense story – in this case, the gassing of civilians in Syria, allegedly by their own government? They work the phones, and the apps.

Which is how Beirut reporter Sarah El Deeb came to interview Abdel Hameed Alyousef, who lost his two children, his wife and other relatives in the attack on the northern town of Khan Sheikhoun. And how she persisted in finding ways to bring the family’s story to the world in all formats.

And it is how she won the Beat of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

All-format CES team turns tech event into win for creative content and audience engagement

on the ground in Las Vegas drove unprecedented audience engagement for the annual CES tech show, where more than 3,000 companies push their innovations. AP provided comprehensive coverage that touched on the metaverse, sustainability, the future of electric vehicles, the economic climate for startups and more. There were dozens of video edits, at least a dozen lives, hundreds of photos, and daily roundups of the coolest, most buzz-worthy tech, all curated on the Technology hub of APnews.com.Read more.

Best of the States

AP team finds diversity of politics and religion among West Virginia evangelicals

A tweet was the seed for this illuminating story. “Most people in my rural, Appalachian hometown are being radicalized at church by their pastor, which is the person they trust the most,” it read. AP’s Global Religion team ran with it.

Reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski visited the parishioners of three churches in Bluefield, West Virginia, including one pastor who had attended the Jan. 6 Washington rally that degenerated into a riot. The AP pair spent weeks convincing him to sit down for an interview. The result was an all-formats package of diverse congregations seeking common ground, even as they are divided on the role of evangelical Christianity in American politics. 

For applying gentle persuasion and balanced reporting to produce a nuanced look at religion and politics in one West Virginia town, Henao and Wardarski win this week’s Best of the States award. 

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP story gets stranded Easter Islanders home after 6 months

reported exclusively on 25 Easter Islanders who were stranded far from home for more than six months because their flights had been canceled during the coronavirus. Within two weeks of AP’s story, authorities in France, French Polynesia and Chile repatriated the travelers on a French military plane.Perry in New Zealand learned about the group and their situation on a French Polynesia Facebook page he monitors. He collaborated with colleague Vergara in Santiago, Chile, who was able to conduct interviews in Spanish and provide context from the Chilean side.The repatriation of the islanders was more rewarding than story metrics or a win over the competition, providing a welcome moment of brightness during the global pandemic.https://bit.ly/34L0mSFhttps://bit.ly/3lBwaQz